Audio Horizons TP 2.0 Preamplifier

Well, folks. Joseph just finished my 2.1 upgrade and has shipped out my preamp. I expect it to arrive early next week and can't wait to listen to it. Man, I'm glad that I've developed patience over the years. I sure do miss my preamp. By the way. If you do return something back to Joseph for an upgrade, mod,etc., make sure that you pack it well in the original double box that Joseph shipped it to you in the beginning. I accidently threw mine away and packed it well in a single box. Leave it to our friends at Fedex to damage the faceplate and power knob. The face plate looked like it had been hacked with an axe a few times. Cost me $50.00 to replace. Oh, what a stupid I am...

Ouch, Rx8man! I hope the buyer is being understanding. It's amazing how much damage can be done by the Fedex and UPS guys. I am going to file a claim with fedex on my preamp, but don't know if they'll pay. I've read some nightmare claim stories here in these threads. I hope UPS will rectify the problem for you and the new owner of your VAC monos.

Hi Grannyring,

Got an update on your new preamp upgrade? Are you still as enthusiastic as after the 30 hour mark?

Bill,
Mt preamp isn't due to arrive until Mon. or Tues. Once I get it hooked up and playing for a day or so, I'll give everyone my impressions. I am curious to see what announcement Victor has to make regarding the upgrades. He and Joseph are at the RMAF now in Denver.

Excellent, Bill. I am happy to hear of your improved system's ability to accurately portray music. I look forward to hearing mine as well. Stay tuned.

Bill,
I agree with your assessment about the preamp being so revealing. I loved my un-upgraded 2.0 so much that I couldn't imagine it getting much better, but when I put a Fusion Impulse copper/silver foil power cord on it, I was in heaven. If heaven sounds better than this then take me now, dear Lord. (<;

I received my upgraded TP 2.0 prreamp this morning. I just hooked it up into the system and turned it on a few minutes ago. Way too early to give listening impressions as the preamp will probably need a few days to settle in, but initially, the first thing that I noticed is an increase in volume. I am getting the same volume at the 8 o'clock position as I was before at the 10 o'clock position before the upgrade. Did anyone notice this volume increase? I wonder if maybe the gain might be too much. I'll reserve impressions until a few days have passed. I will ask Victor about the gain when he and Joseph return and get re-settled from the RMAF show. I'm sure that they'll need to time to regroup. I do hope that they make some good contacts to help further the growth and expansion of Audio Horizons. I wish only the best for these gentlemen.

Well, I have about 32 hours on my upgraded Tp 2.0 to 2.1 preamp. So far, I'm not too impressed. The sound initially is much louder( more gain) with a larger soundstage and a more up-front presentation. Soundstage does indeed seem to be more 2-dimensional than previously experienced. Transparency seems to be improved with better delineation of detail. You can hear more background information(i.e. handclaps, individual instruments, singers) but my ears are missing some aliveness. The presentation I had previously with the 2.0 version gave me a sound that gave musical instruments and voices a "breath of life" sound that I'm not getting with this new upgrade. Stay tuned for more input after further break in.

I might have been premature in posting an impression. I just received an e-mail from Victor and since Joseph does extensive mods to the power supply along with the new wiring harness and output caps, Victor told me to hold off for at least 100 hours to make an impression. It just passed the 54 hour mark, so there is a ways to go. I'll be patient and give it more time.

Good idea, Tvad. Maybe Victor will address this in their website or on this thread soon. I had thought that the trial period was 30 days. Maybe that applies to their cables. Victor, it might be time to clarify some issues to eliminate the vagueness of some things.

Bill(Grannyring), I suppose, because of your extreme enthusiasm after just 30 hours for the upgrade, it caused me to wonder after my first 30 hours with the unit. When you mentioned that the preamp is revealing of all the cables preceding it, I would agree, but at the same time, in my opinion, the more revealing the cables, the easier it is to hear the break-in of the preamp. I don't think that my cables are an issue here. I have gone through a gazillion cables these last few years and feel that I have some amazing cabling in my system. If anything, my interconnects are ever-so-slightly on the warm side of neutral, which is preferable to me than on the other side of neutral. After 54 hours, the sound is definitely much better than at the 30 hour mark, however, the overall sound is still lacking in some body and upper extension. Victor told me that this should start to fill in when approaching the 100 hour mark. At this time, there is still a slight homogenization of the sound with a dullness in the palpability of the music. Again, Victor said this is due to the combination of the new wiring harness( In his words, Joseph's new harnesses take "a long time" to break in), the new output caps and the extensive mods to the power supply. I recall my original TP 2.0n version having a much smoother transition in its break in than this upgraded version. At this time, because the sound is improving, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and let it go through its 100 hour or so period. I am leaving my preamp on 24/7 and only listen to music when I get home from work for 4 or 5 hours. I hate leaving my preamp on continously because it is reducing the lifespan of my precious Siemens CCa tubes. Oh, the life of the continuously upgrading audio hobbiest. If only I could leave well enough alone sometimes.

I know that my upgraded preamp had no burn-in time on it. The minute Joseph finished the upgrades, he popped it into a box and got it on the first Fedex truck so that he could catch his flight to Denver for the RMAF show. I'm not complaining. It was either that or wait until he returned from the show to do the upgrade and return it to me then. Another week's delay would have killed me. I haven't heard from anyone of receiving anything but a new unit when they order from Audio Horizons, unless it's specified that its a demo unit, which I've only seen one up for sale recently. Then again, for those few preamps that are returned to Joseph, he's got to do something with them to resale. As to if he refurbishes them to be as new when he resales is another question. Victor is getting recuperative rest today after an exhaustive time at the RMAF show with Joseph. He just e-mailed me and told me soon that he would be posting here to clarify some things about the new preamp upgrades as well as tell us all some good news about some contacts he and Joseph made at the show.

Stltrains, if you have bought a good set of early 60's Siemens CCa, hopefully prior to their change-over to another owner( @ 1965-66), with the grey plates, etc. you are going to be amazed at the magical portrayal of music. You'll especially notice this in locations 1 and 3. You might consider keeping Joseph's Siemens in 2 and 4 locations. I actually preferred the one pair of CCa's in mix with a later A-frame Siemens E88cc.

Bill, the preamp just passed the 59 hour mark and I'm starting to get a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. A smidgen of life, warmth and body along with increased micro dynamics and transparency is setting in...but just a smidge. In my e-mail exchange with Victor, I mentioned that "breath of life"( one of my fave phrases) which was lacking. He explained that what I'm hearing is the natural compression and lack of air that is evident due to the lengthy break in until everything suddenly clicks in within the 100 hour mark. Apparently, the preamp will continue to further improve well after the 100 hours, but it will take up to the 100 hours just to get that "breath of life" which I'm missing. We'll see.

Bill,
I have tried a couple of the AH interconnects and preferred a cable mix that I already had. I am still using an AH Premium( original) power cord version in my system with good results, though. I can't use the XLR outputs because my amp is only single-ended and all the rest of my ic's are single-ended as well. I would imagine that the XLR set-up would be quieter.

Joe,
I realize that the auditory memory is poor, however, being a musician and being very familiar with the live sound of instruments,I remember what the each preamp gave me in terms of reproducing recorded instruments which I am familiar with. I am going to continue listening nightly to my "new" preamp as it continues through its break-in towards the 100 hour mark. Stay tuned.

Only mental notes. I would like to have the two preamp versions side-by-side, but I will know in due time if I prefer this upgraded version to the old. So far, the new version does some things better, but the "breath of life" is still not quite there. The preamp has roughly 70 hours on it at this time. Thirty more to go.

My upgraded preamp just passed the 100-hour mark. Mixed emotions...

I would agree that sonically the TP 2.1n preamp version is completely different from the TP 2.0n version.

I have high hopes, Bill. At this juncture, I'm kinda sorta missing my old TP 2.0n.

Stltrains,
Regarding the pinging sound on one of your channels, I'm guessing that one of your new Cca tubes is microphonic. The 6922( E88cc) family, particularly NOS vintage ones were notorious for being microphonic. You might consider contacting the person you bought it from to see if he will exchange the bad one for you, unless they are a perfectly matched pair. Then you'll need to exchange with him the matched pair. Before you do that, however, exchange the tubes from left to right to see if the "pinging" sound moves to the other channel. If it does, then you definitely have a bad tube. If the pinging remains in the same channel after reversing the tubes, then you have another issue to problem solve for. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your preamp with the new Cca tubes. If the tubes are really NOS, then they should get even better after about 100 hours. Have fun.

Andrewdoan,
I'm sorry that no one has answered your request, so I'm assuming that nobody has had the chance to compare the Rogue with the TP 2.1n. As you know, Audio Horizons offers a trial and money-back guarantee. From a few previous posts there is some confusion as to the adequate time allowed in this trial to fully evaluate the preamp, however, most of the current owners seem to have kept their preamps while making up their minds before the 10 days ended. If you have or can get a Rogue unit for evaluation, I would suggest that you time it to get both the TP 2.1n preamp in at the same time of the Rogue unit and do a fun comparison of both in your system to make up your mind of which you like better. Maybe, someone will still chime in yet to give you their personal opinion of each.

"Over time I have to agree with Sherod, the newer version is weaker in "breath of life". Combined, all these differences make for a very different sounding preamp.

Perhaps burn in will ultimately bring this attribute to the music."

Bill, I heard this "breath of life" phrase in an older review from back in about 1978 of a pair of speakers that were time and phase aligned. Ever since then, I've kept this phrase in my mind as to me it encompasses a lot of things. Actually, that elusive "breath of life" is more important to me than any of the other attributes you mentioned, yet when a component expresses that "breath of life" the other attributes should be there as well, but not always. In a nutshell, "breath of life" means real and palpable to me. If I'm listening to a good piano recording, I expect it to give me a "live" presentation, not a reasonable facsimile of one, no matter how clean and big it sounds on that stage. So far, with my upgraded preamp, the presentation of the soundstage is larger than life, and the sound is all coming from a two-dimensional plane. For example, when I listen to an orchestra that has been well recorded, I want to hear the trumpets coming from the back row, the flutes and clarinets on the front, the percussionists even further back. To me, at this point, the orchestra seems to be all sitting together on the front row. This is difficult to explain, for me.

Stltrains,
I'm glad to hear that you isolated the bad tube. You might like this new configuration better. It's very similar to my configuration. I also hope that the seller will work with you on the exchange. Keep us posted on the sound with these new tubes.

La45,
According to Victor, the new wiring harness has a lot to do with the looooong break in.

For the technically-minded, the new output caps in the TP 2.1 upgrade are 1uf value. These are bypassed with a .22uf Solen cap to tame down the highs a bit. The TP 2.0n had a 4.7uf Hovland. I find this interesting as this value difference might make a difference in matching to input impedances of certain amps. Perhaps Victor will expound on this.

Grant,
My upgraded preamp just passed the 120 hour mark. Yes, the voices do seem to appear to be still slightly recessed. The highs are also a bit softer,i.e. cymbals and bells are a tad soft. I used the word subdued with Victor and he calls it soft(You call it "to-ma-to", I call it "to-mah-to"). The soundstage seems to be wider, yet not deeper( overall much larger than life to me). I am going to give it through the weekend and by then, if I'm not satisfied, I'm going to talk with Victor or Joseph to see if I can semi-revert back to the original TP 2.0n version. I have tried many different versions and value sizes of output caps in my previous TP 2.0n version and Joseph said that when he upgraded my preamp he had to repair some traces on the board that had rubbed off somewhat( from all the cap changes I made). Victor "strongly" urged me not to experiment with cap replacements anymore. Still, at this juncture, my ears are missing the "breath of life" sound that the Hovlands were giving me, in spite of Victor's opinion that the Hovlands sound a little compressed and veiled in comparison to the new caps. Since Joseph doesn't give an itemization of all what changes he makes( only a generalization), I'm wondering if my older Hovlands would still be a drop-in replacement for the new output caps. Victor told me that the Hovlands would work in the new unit, but hasn't responded to a follow-up e-mail where I asked him to confirm with Joseph about the Hovlands being a drop-in replacement) You might want to consider communicating with me privately from here on so as not to ruffle some feathers here on this thread.

Grant,
I feel a bit uncomfortable mainly because I seem to be the only one so far who has issues with the new, upgraded preamp( besides yourself, that is). I just want to make sure that all is okay before I make any final assessments. I'm currently communicating with Victor who is awaiting a response from Joseph on what I can do to determine why I am hearing what I'm hearing.

Grant,
I'm not so sure yet that the issue is with the amp interaction. It might be just a coincidence that we both share sister amps. I am going to take an educated guess that based on my experience(with changing out the output caps, experimenting with different brands and values, as well as with many smaller bypass caps)that there might be a phase anamoly or irregularity with the new output caps and the solen bypass caps. In the TP 2.0 version with upgraded Hovland caps, rated at 4.7uf, I tried different values of the same Hovland cap( 1uf,2uf,3.3uf, and 4uf) None sounded as good as the 4.7uf value which Joseph was using. This lead me to believe that Joseph knew what he was doing and had pretty good ears. I later tried various Audiophile-type caps( Dynamicaps,V-caps) with same and different values and always came back to the 4.7uf value. For some reason, this value worked best with my VAC amps and sounded the best to me. Initially, I preferred the V-caps( 4.7uf oil-impregnated) because they just had more life and dynamics to them. But after a while there was this over-warmth and smoothing effect which robbed the music of proper attack to my ears, so I eventually went back to my trusty Hovland caps. It was when I recently found a new power cord line, Fusion Audio) that these really brought out the life and realism of my system, especially the TP 2.0. Everything finally just "clicked" in. Based on my faith of Joseph's ears and work, I decided to try the new upgraded version and that is where I am now after about 130 hours of burn in. One of the things that I noticed when I was experimenting with different caps and bypasses, the preamp never, and I mean never, sounded right with the bypass caps, no matter what value. Every bypass cap caused some type of phase anamoly which skewed the frequency response in an unnatural way. Depending on the value of the bypass, this skewing ,or plateau-effect, if you will, took away that natural balance and breath of life from the music. My TP 2.0 sounded its best when only one value cap alone was used in the outputs. Ultimately, as imperfect as the Hovland 4.7uf is, it sounded the best in the circuit of the TP 2.0. Joseph got it right the first time around, IMHO.

Stltrains,
I'm very happy for you that the TP 2.1 preamp has worked out so well you in your system. Enjoy the music, my friend.

Grant, I might have spoken too soon. You have a point about a possible impedance mismatch with our amps. More to come.

Well Gentlemen. I have decided to go on my own with a slight modification. My instinct to hunt( as Stltrains says about man) and my desire to know the truth forced me to do a little experiment. Tonight, I very carefully took out the new output caps and bypasses. I replaced them with the original upgraded Hovland 4.7uf caps from before the upgrade. The system has been playing now for about an hour. So how does it sound, you ask? The "breath of life" is back. The midrange now has that palpable realness that I've been missing. The soundstage now has normal front to back depth. Highs are once again clean and extended and the bass is as powerful as it was. The power supply mods that Joseph did seems to make an improvement. I get a slight increase in volume, but the dynamic differences are still realistic in portraying music. I'm sure that the new wire harnesses are also contributing to a cleaner sound as well. I'm not sure why this small change makes so much of a difference in my system but I'll guess and say that it was a combination of an impedance matching issue with my amps along with some phase irregularities that I mentioned in my previous post caused by the bypass caps. All I know is that I'm a happier guy tonight and my ears are pleased with the musical portrayal.

I guess I have a different preamp than anyone now. It is no longer a TP 2.0n version nor is it a new TP 2.1n. I have affectionately renamed my preamp the in-between model, the new TP 2.05n. Must... go... listen. Music is beckoning.

Bill,
I think 140 hours on my upgrade was enough break-in for me to know if the caps were right for my system. Regarding the tube locations. Looking down from the front, starting from left to right is location 1-4. 1 and 3 are the most critical to the sound. I might be up to the wee hours myself listening this weekend. The fun is back. Enjoy.

Grant,
I agree that Blackgate caps take an unusually lengthy time to break in. Some have said the larger values take up to 600 hours or more. Most of your polyprops, metal films, oil impregnated, etc. take much less time. Speaking of Blackgates, I have read that the manufacturer has stopped making them. I know that Joseph uses them in some of his tuner mods. He put some in my tuner mod.

Thanks, guys, for the well wishes. I feel like I'm getting get well wishes after my near-death situation. Now that I have the old Hovlands back in, the phasey sound is gone and the sound my ears are familiar with is back, to a certain extent. Having the preamp now on for about 24 hours, the sound seems a bit dark for me, but that could be other issues. I'm going to just listen to music this weekend and try to relax and release some of the stress that has built up for me these last couple of weeks. I'm sorry to have stirred up a hornet's nest for everyone, but I'm a perfectionist and I want my hobby of musical listening to be the best possible.

Hi Sang,
I tried several value V-caps, both the Teflon and oil-impregnated in different values as bypass and none sounded right. All bypasses on the outputs caused this "shelving" effect where the sound lost its wholeness and took on the characteristics of the cap used as the bypass. Both Joseph and Victor have good systems and I'm sure good ears, but my system preferred the 2.0n version in the end. Your mileage might vary. Please don't think that I'm a troll or naysayer. I was one of the early buyers of the TP 2.0n preamp and if you'll peruse the threads, you'll see that I was always there to champion the work and genius of the "Master" Mr. Chow. I feel my praise of his preamp has played a small, but significant role in helping others to decide to try and now enjoy his preamp.

Sang,
I just wanted to clarify that I didn't try any bypasses on the new 2.1n output caps, only on various caps in my 2.0n version.

Here is an e-mail response from Victor to a question I asked him regarding a few things:

"We voice changes to Joseph's components whenever we can or feel we need to over three speaker systems--Joseph's Sophias, Cedar's Coincidence, and my ESS Transars.

When Joseph and I A-B'ed the new caps vs the Hovlands on the 2.1 through Joseph's Wilson Sophias, we felt the Hovlands had a narrower bandwidth (less top and bottom and a bit more forward in the midrange), were definitely less open (that is, more compressed), and less transparent (more veiled). Because they captured musical texture and harmonics less well and the attacks were less clear, the Hovlands were smoother sounding, but to our ears at a very great cost. Joseph visited Cedar and they conducted an A-B of the new changes to the 2.1 (minus the later power supply changes) vs the equivalent 2.0. Cedar and Joseph both felt the new caps etc. made a dramatic improvement over the old. Had the changes been felt to be subtler, we would have voiced over my speakers to confirm, but the feeling of all of us over the two speaker systems was that the improvement was dramatic and not subtle.

Joseph's Sophias and Cedar's Consonance speakers are three ways. We prefer to voice with three ways because of the inherent limitations of two ways. Designing a two way speaker is very difficult because the crossover point is usually at or near the point at which the ear is most sensitive--1000 Hz-2500 Hz. This means phase anomalies play a critical role, and also this is the point at which woofers sometimes become a little more ragged and tweeters are operating at the limits of their low frequency range. To minimize the possiblity of nasal elements occuring when the human voice is played, two way speaker designers often design their crossovers to slightly de-emphasize these frequencies--not greatly but slightly, maybe a couple of dB. The old Advent speakers which were such popular best sellers, had a very pronounced but narrow hole in the midrange at the crossover point of a few dB. But the designers counted on the human ear's ability to fill in gaps to compensate for this. (I enclose an essay I wrote for Joseph on Audio Listening which touches on this phenomenon.) Nevertheless if one compared an Advent with a quality three way speaker, one could distinctly hear the hole in the midrange at about 1500 Hz.

You refer to the "breath of life" in your posts. Much goes into the "breath of life" but certainly midrange "presence" is a significant component of it. If you have a two way speaker, and if it, as do so many, has a slight dip in the midrange (not a great dip, just a modest carefully contoured depression along those critical frequencies to prevent any hint of honkiness or a nasal quality to vocals), you might welcome the Hovlands slight midrange emphasis--more than welcome it, need it to give you that "presence" so much a part of the breath of life.

Having committed irrevocably to the new caps, we now needed to listen very, very carefully to what we had now created.
This led to our feeling that the extended frequency response of the new caps was exposing high output breakup at crescendoes. To counteract this, we made the power supply changes that increased the voltage. The result of these changes was to increase dramatic contrasts, to supply extra reserves of power when crescendoes occurred, and thus to end the high output break up which we had found objectionable. It also had the effect of "softening" or "subduing" the high end and with it the objectionable edginess, and to all our ears it did this without rolling off the high end. What I'm trying to convey is that it is common for even careful listeners to confuse the added brightness caused by various forms of ringing and loss of high frequency control with extended bandwidth. We did not alter the bandwidth, or the frequency response, only the break up and edginess, but subjectively to listeners who are noticing this subliminally, this comes through as a softer or subdued top end.

The "warmth" or "darkness" you hear is not in the caps you mention, but inherent in the power supply changes. To get back to the old TP 2.0n, you would need to sacrifice all the gains of the power supply mod, which gains are extensive in our opinion. Changing the value of those caps will not do it.

I will ask Joseph if there is a simple way to add a little emphasis to your top end. Meanwhile, please give us a chance to think through these issues before you make any changes to the unit. Despite our asking you not to make changes, it seems you made changes and could not wait until we told you how to make them in a way that did not affect the traces. Sherod, we try to respond as rapidly as we can, and I think we do a pretty good job. I don't think from the time you put your last question re the Hovlands to us until we responded was even five days. That shouldn't be too long to wait.

We will try to respond to this new request as soon as we can, but what you want to accomplish is not easy because so many elements went into the changes you hear. Isolating one from the other is not easy. We will try to have an answer for you within a few days.

If you want to post any part of this answer on the Discussion Forum, feel free to do so."

Just to keep things into perspective, I am posting my initial e-mail to Victor to which Victor responded in the post I made above:

Victor,
When Joseph initially tried these new output caps and found that he liked them, I'm trying to put things into perspective: at this point you both decided that you liked them. Did you decide then that the power supply needed to be improved to accommodate the new caps or you just wanted to make the power supply larger to improve the preamp in general? I'm trying to figure out at what point did you decide to make a change to the new 2.1 version and why. I'm curious what you said on your recent post on the Audiogon thread about when the power supply was increased from 100V to 140V you noticed increased dynamic swings, yet the top end became soft. I'm trying to understand what this "softness" means. I never felt that the top end was ever soft in my 2.0n. Also, I noticed that on the mainboard with the tubes, in the front of the board are four electrolytic caps. Next to these are smaller film caps. As I recall, the value on the 2.0n smaller caps were .22uf, and they are now .47uf. Can you tell me what this cap value change did to the circuit? The reason I'm asking is that now that I've reverted back to the solo Hovlands by themselves in the outputs, I'm getting a little darker or warmer sound than before. I'm trying to figure out what in the upgrade could be causing this. Basically ,in a nutshell, what I'm trying to do is revert back to the 2.0n which I had before Joseph made his upgrades yet keep key things that would benefit the original configuration. Please be rest assured that I don't intend to make changes to the preamp that would cause damage to the traces to void any warrantee. I'm grateful that Joseph repaired some traces for me during his upgrades as an act of goodwill. Thanks for your help.

Best, Sherod

Rx8man,
You might get a faster response from Victor by e-mailing him directly. I also am waiting for an answer from him as regards to my situation. At this time, my main system is shut down. Thank goodness I still have my bedroom system for some music.

I just had an interesting e-mail from Victor. It looks like Joseph might be focussing on either a high-powered SET amp at 30-55 Watts or a high-powered push-pull 150 watts. This should be fun to see what he comes up with.

Btstrg,
While I am waiting for my re-build( reconvert back to 2.0n version) kit from Joseph, I am sending my amps back to VAC to check and scope for factory specs.

Well, I just had to get in that 700th post. We're slowly gaining on the Supratek thread. I am, unfortunately, without my main system for a few weeks, but I'm hoping to have it up and running and enjoying my music once again soon. I have e-mailed Victor privately to congratulate them on the new review of the line stage and phono section. I am particularly anxious to read the upcoming review from the Dagogo site. I hope that Victor will keep us abreast of this review as well as Joseph's progress with his new amp.

Yes, Stltrains. I agree with Gammajo in that a wood floor with a large area rug can work just fine. It will, in general, add a bit more liveliness to the room, which might be either a nice addition or not to the sound. Make sure that the first reflection points off your speakers are addressed. If you like the sound fine as is with the new floor arrangement, then enjoy the music. If it adds too much liveliness( i.e. slap echos,etc) then you might need to adjust the other room acoutrements with some diffusion/dampening. Have fun and enjoy. I look forward to hearing how the new AH interconnects sound for you. Just remember to give them some break-in time.

Rja,

It appears that no one with Wadia amps has tried the AH preamp out with it. Perhaps you can get one for a free home trial and let us know how it sounds.

Rob,
Perhaps Joseph or Victor can answer your question best. All they told me, back when I was tube-rolling, was that locations 1 & 3 were the most critical for the sound. I would imagine that these are in the signal path. As to what locations 2 & 4 do, I can only take a layman's guess that they are for regulation. It's best to ask the "Master"( J. Chow) himself.

David,
Welcome to the AH club. I'm curious what mods were done on the TP 2.0 version you auditioned. Also, since you had an opportunity to try the 2.0 version first, I would be interested in what your thoughts are after you've had the new 2.1 version in your system for a while. Enjoy the music and don't be a stranger.

David,
I noticed that you're selling your entire main system as you're moving to Korea. I'm curious what system you are going to get to put your new TP 2.1 preamp in?

Gentlemen,
This thread has become fairly quiet lately. Is everyone just enjoying their music so much that they don't have either the time or inclination to put in any comments? I would love to hear from new owners of the TP 2.1 or thoughts from anyone else who has upgraded from the 2.0 to the 2.1. My main system is still down. My VAC amps are still at the factory waiting for a check-up. I didn't realize until they received my amps that there was a two week back-up in the service department. I sure do miss the music. Even though I have my bedroom system running, it's just not the same.

Luis,
You are a funny guy. I don't shop until the day after Christmas when they have the 50% off sales. Just kidding, but my mother has always shopped this way to prepare for the next Christmas. It's a little early anyway for me to get into the holiday spirit. Maybe when Thanksgiving comes, I'll start humming and whistling the Christmas carols and get myself into the holiday mood. I also enjoy reading your enthusiastic posts as well.

Hi Grant,
From a price comparison, it wouldn't be a fair comparison, however, a couple of guys have said that their TP 2.0 versions sounded better in their systems than a couple of preamps that retailed for $16,000.00 plus. I would love to hear your impressions of the Atma-sphere preamp paired with your VAC monoblocks, though. Are you getting a nice sound through your speakers that you're happy with?